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Crowd-Controlling Deputy Now Under Investigation for Appearance in Racy Magazine Layout

Posted Jan 21st, 2000 00:00 AM

It sounds like something out of a WCW Monday Nitro script, but Digital Playground's Samantha Lewis has been on the phone constantly with the powers-that-be which control the fate of Deputy Charles Kristoff. And Lewis is being interviewed by every news bureau under heaven in connection with the Kristoff affair. What has prompted the mainstream's interest, you ask?

A Digitial Playground autograph signing at the Hustler store on July 8th and a madcap situation regarding crowd control ended up putting Kristoff, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy in hot water. Cheri magazine subsequently published photographs of the deputy with some scantily-clad adult film actresses.

According to The Los Angeles Times the deputy is being scrutinized for potential unprofessional conduct since the publication of a two-page display in Cheri, with one page titled "Cop-a-Feel". The paper says the deputy was trying to corral some of the adult film actresses who spilled out of a party at Hustler Hollywood.

Kristoff wasn't exactly being shown as a slice of beefcake, the Times says. Kristoff's described as a portly 42-year-old law enforcement officer, assigned to the sheriff's West Hollywood station, and is shown in the photographs alternately laughing and looking distracted while different women in bra tops and short shorts sidled up to him, the paper says.

The most risque photograph in the series, the Times says, shows Kristoff standing behind a woman as she holds his hands to her barely-covered chest, while another photo shows a woman with her legs over his shoulders while sitting on a patrol car.

Kristoff's been suspended as the probe continues, the paper says. The paper adds that he told KCAL-TV on Sunday night that the pictures were causing him problems. Department standards require deputies in uniform to act like professionals and do nothing to embarrass the department, the Times says.

Department officials tell the paper they saw the Cheri photos last week for the first time. The case has been moved to the Internal Affairs division, and the department says if other deputies were part of the incident they may be investigated as well.

Hustler store manager Dustin Flynt tells the Times several deputies came to the party to help with traffic control, but Kristoff is the only one of the officers to appear in the Cheri spread. The party had spilled over onto an already-crowded portion of the Sunset Strip.

Digital Playground had hired actresses to appear at Hustler Hollywood, the Times says. Digital Playground vice president Samantha Lewis tells the paper she had no control over either text or pictures in the Cheri feature. In fact, Lewis also tells the paper "thank God" Kristoff was on the scene.

"He kept control of the crowd," Lewis tells the Times. "He absolutely did not do anything wrong; he actually tamed everyone down." She says the photos came as a result of the "playfulness" of the actresses. "Whenever the girls see an officer, they always go the extra mile to get their picture taken," she says. "These girls are entertainers. They try to make you loosen up even if you don't want to."

Lewis also says Kristoff actually tried to tell one of the actresses sitting on his patrol car she couldn't do that. She says the woman who sat on the car with her legs wrapped around Kristoff was actually trying to get down off the car, according to the Times.

Lewis: "We were debuting Virtual Sex with Nikki Tyler. And we had the other Virtual Sex girls come join us - Teri Weigel, Nikki Tyler; Tera Patrick was there but she was not a Digital Playground girl at the time. But she has been out there representing the store because she saw the incident. This Hustler event, according to Theresa Flynt, was probably the largest turnout she's ever had. We had promoted it during the Summer Expo. By the time we all arrived at the event, Sunset was shut down. There were hundreds and hundreds of people. By the time we got inside, we noticed that the police arrived. The minute the girls saw the police, as adult entertainers, they ran out and wanted to greet the police.

"They went out there and this officer at the time, there were three of them, the girls wanted to pose with them. The officer [Kristoff] was extremely adamant about it. He said, no pictures, no pictures. But he couldn't control it. The pictures went off, and last week Cheri magazine published the pictures. [AVN published similar photos months ago].

"He's under investigation by Internal Affairs right now. Apparently the department saw this as inappropriate behavior. He has not been dismissed yet, but they're investigating it right now. What they're interviewing us about, is, since I didn't leave the officer's side, they've been interviewing me on what happened. Basically, this is this officer's beaten path. Apparently he's been at other events and handles all the rock clubs along Sunset Strip. This is his turf. He's got a tremendous spirit. I was greatful that he was there because I wanted to make sure our girls were dressed appropriately and that he was going to observe the event and not let it get out of control because there was a lot of touchy-feely that night. But it did get out of control. We didn't have enough security.

"I had my own security, but I was glad when police arrived. They parked their cars right out in front, folded their arms and stood out there. When the girls came to approach them, Nikki Tyler jumps on top of the car because she wanted to pose for a picture. He immediately told her to get down, but she was in stiletto heels. He was assisting her to get down. As she was getting down, he grabbed her leg, the picture was snapped and it didn't look good.

"Then we all know how Teri Weigel is. Very energetic. Very outgoing. She came up underneath him, grabbed his hand and said, smile! He throw his head back, and the picture shows him cupping her breasts. He's saying I told you girls you can't be doing this. That was the situation and I'm trying to itemize each shot that was taken of him to try to explain that this is not what was going on. He was trying to keep some humor in it. He was laughing. He was a sweetheart. There was no nudity. In Cheri magazine, they're mixing up some photos of the Summer Expo where you've got nudity and you got our photos. It looks like the same event. I have heard that this officer is happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He enjoys these events. He's a nice guy. By all means. he didn't show any inappropriate behavior. I wasn't shocked. I was trying to control my girls saying don't push your luck.

"I sent everyone back inside. Then the fire trucks pulled up. The girls ran out again, jumped on the fire trucks. Everyone failed to mention this. But he's being exploited everywhere. We've interviewed with CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Inside Edition. What I'm trying to do is set the record straight. And Theresa Flynt is trying to set the record straight. It's kind of a shame. I was told he spoke to somebody about retiring, that this is a little too much for him. It's hurting his family. But he was so nice."